Lily/Vegas/2Gents/Mercy/Voltaire&Frederic/SaltGirl

Lily's Revenge
Poppy Costume Design by Sarah Cubbage

 

This is last year, in a nutshell.

 

V&F in Toronto

Margaret Anne Brady as Flower Girl

Salt Girl Performance/discussion for
the Mass. Institute of Psychoanalysis

Mercy Hospital

Bruno, 2 Gents

Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas
The Tempest Workshop

Hot Young Playwright

This theatre has all the hottest young playwrights.

There are no old playwrights to be found here.

they are young, and we have them

just for you

so you won't feel like a complete loser

they are SO young! 

and hungry

and...

uh...

(Pause)

this theatre has all the young, hot playwrights!

they are barely born, they're so young

they have the young fresh ideas that those young people have

bouncing around in those webby noggins

and my god are they up and coming

the next big thing

you haven't heard of them yet

but pretty soon, everyone will know about them

those hot young brash angry young playwrights

they're just so...

(long silence.  3 minutes AT LEAST, please!)

modern.

If they were a little more connected

they could be writing scripts for

"girls"

(you know?  lena dunham?  google her.)

or something like "girls"...

"girls 2: dunebuggies!"

or

"girls vs. zombies"

but they aren't writing for "girls"

so we have them locked in a basement

writing plays

for the stage

for the THEE-ATE-TER

So get 'em while they're young and hot and angry

those steaming fresh-faced scribes

they can barely walk

the cord was just cut

and we slapped them on the ass

and handed them a laptop

they are

unplugged

switched on

gurgling

uninsured

limber

crepuscular

and they will work

for

skittles

and

scrambled eggs.

Fifty Shades of Dr. Seuss

(Lights up on Ana sitting in a whimsical armchair.  She is typing on an old-fashioned, whimsical type-writer.  Mr. Gray, in an equally whimsical hat, pops up behind her.)

Mr. Gray: 

I am Gray. 

(He disappears and pops up again on the other side) 

Gray, I say.

(He disappears again)

Ana: 

That Mr. Gray.  That Mr. Gray. 

I sort of like that Mr. Gray…

Mr. Gray: 

(Appearing again somewhere else)

I’d like us to date, don’t think I’m a jerk,

But first you must fill out some paper work.

Then we’ll have sex, what is your reply?

I’m not a hearts and flowers kind of guy…

Ana: 

I guess it’s ok, though lacking in form:

This seems like gratuitous Mommy porn.

(She signs the document, then...)

Mr. Gray: 

Would you like a little spank? 

Tell me, Tell me: please be frank.

Ana: 

I wouldn’t mind a little spank. 

And my name is Ana, it isn’t “Frank”.

Mr. Gray: 

Would you like it on your bum? 

Would you like your bum all numb?

Ana: 

Oh yes Oh yes, I would I say! 

Yes, I tell you, Mr. Gray!

Mr. Gray: 

Would you like your nipples clamped? 

In my dungeon, cold and damp?

Ana: 

If I said “No” I’d be mistook:

I’d sell no copies of this book!

Yes I’d like it on my bum,

do it while I suck my thumb!

Mr. Gray: 

(while spanking Ana)

Oh , the places you’ll go!

Oh the things you will see!

Just sign this pre-nup

And you’ll belong only to me!

(a long document scrolls out onto the floor.

He produces a huge, plumed fountain pen)

I’ll tease you with tozzlers and snuzz you with snoozlers.

I’ll even attempt to ba-bing your bamboozler!

I’ll twizzle your foozle and bang your shin-doodle

And then we can try that thing with the poodle!

Ana:

Oh Mr. Gray, what can I say?

All the other single men are either married or gay.

I’ll sign you your pre-nup, fast as can be

And oh all the kinky things I will see!

(Signing the document)

I’ll drood on your kuzzle , And wamp on your curd

And remember that “Twoozle!” will be our “safe word”

I’ll sneed on your snoozle, And kirk on your bloor

And we’ll spill lots of flizzle, All over your floor!

Mr. Gray: 

(After an inscrutable pause)

But alas my dear Ana, I cannot commit

In spite of your willingness to submit

I’m leaving you now, I will not come back

Ana: 

Oh say it’s not so, oh alas and alack!

Mr.Gray: 

And yet as I go, I feel such regret.

I will always remember this day that we met.

(He vanishes)

Ana: 

Someday, Mr Gray, you and I will be equals.

(She sits down at her typewriter again)

But not til I write 6 or 7 more sequels...

(She resumes writing.  Fade to gray.)

 

 

Mercy Hospital - Photo Shoot

 

 Every year, I write a new play for my senior class at BoCo to perform, based on improvs and projects and characters they create in class.  It's totally fun.  I usually introduce a "source text" to get us all started.  This year is was "Spook" by Mary Roach.  What emerged was a play about a haunted hospital filled with soap opera actors, murderous ghost doctors and hapless psychics.  Here's my program note to the audience, and some pictures of the production. 

All photos by Alexis Scheer.

Welcome to Mercy Hospital

This play did not exist a few months ago, and now it does.  It was created specifically for this company of actors to perform, and you are one of the first audiences to see it.

Isn’t that exciting?

As a source, we used Mary Roach’s engaging and droll book Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.  This collection of essays examines the quest by certain members of the scientific and medical communities to prove the existence of ghosts, the afterlife and the human soul (among other things). 

Its tone is macabre and hilarious at once.

We read passages together and shared personal stories.

We created compositions, scenarios and characters through projects and improvisations.

Text and structure began to emerge.

Sometimes I would adjust homeless material that I had wrought previously, but more often than not I was inspired by these actors & what they had created in the studio.  This was truly a symbiotic relationship between actor and playwright. 

The actors also created text for themselves and their fellow cast members to perform, which is included here, as well! 

We discovered together what this world contained:

Candy Corn, Plastic Sheets & Coat-hangers. 

Syrup and disco. 

Rubber gloves & mysterious blue stains. 

We found the shapes and sounds and gestures that seemed to repeat themselves: the static of the waiting area TV, the gesture of a doctor preparing for surgery, the over-wrought expressions of soap opera actors, the incidental music of 50s pot boilers, mingled with the glittery oeuvre of Donna Summer.

From the themes and ideas of Spook emerged the characters, scenarios and world of Mercy Hospital.

To me, Mercy Hospital is actually three separate hospitals that overlap each other:

In one reality, a woman lies in a coma after a car  accident, while her husband sleeps and dreams in the hospital waiting area, a TV crackling in the background.

In another, a Professor in paranormal psychology engages three psychics to hunt for ghost in the deserted halls of the haunted Mercy Hospital: abandoned for decades after the head physician, Dr. Darling, began murdering his patients in search of their souls.

In yet a third reality, the vaguely 80s soap opera “Mercy Hospital” is being filmed, drawing the denizens of the other two worlds into its ludicrous plot lines.  Collisions will occur.

It has been a great adventure creating this theatrical world with this talented group of artists. 

   

Enjoy!

Johnny

Cast of Characters

 

Pom Pom Girl                                      Roxy York

Sylvia                                     Kathleen LaMagna

Alan                                             Marchant Davis

Professor Weldon/Big Red           Tom Hamlett

Dr. Ian Wingfield                          Bradley Gibson

Myrtle                                               Sarah Mullis

Hope                                           Sarah Smithton

Carla                            Erin “Sprinkles” Kommer

Dr. David Darling                               Brian Wible

Stefan                                                 Riley Brack  

                    

Isadora Von Pain                  Vicky Campadonico

                         

Production

Direction, Set & Sound Design:               John Kuntz

Stage Manager:                             Grace Tarves

Text:                                                          John Kuntz

Lighting Design:               Michael Clark Wonson

Props:                                                Tyler Brown

Costumes:                                     Rachel Padula

Video Design:  

             Sarah Smithton, Adam Stone & Kuntz

“Mercy Hospital Opening Credits” &

“The Frosting Montage”

                 - filmed and edited by Sarah Smithton

Poster Design:                             Matthew Rodin

Crew:             Styles Speights and John Cardoza

Additional Text:

“I’m so bad at being crazy” (speech) & “This goes here and that goes there” (speech)   by Sarah Mullis

“Love Poem” by Roxy York

“Love Poem Response” by Riley Brack

“I need to cut the voices out of you” (speech) by Brian Wible

“Making love in the Partridge Family’s Tree house” (speech) by Kathleen LaMagna

“He poisoned me” (speech) by Marchant Davis

 “MacArthur Park”, “Hot Stuff” &

“Last Dance” by the Company

Special Thanks:

Adam Stone, Matthew Rodin, Alexis Scheer, Richard Malcolm and his staff, Jennifer Smith, Rebecca Butler and the Boston Conservatory costume shop, Tommy Derrah.

Mercy Hospital

Brian Wible as Dr. David Darling and
Tom Hamlett as Audrey Redwood aka "Big Red"
in Mercy Hospital

 

 

Mercy Hospital closed today at BoCo! 

It was an amazing experience creating this play for this group of actors!

I never know what will happen when we begin.  Which is great.

2 Gents!

Micheal Kane as Panthino, Me and Bruno
Photo by Stratton McCrady


We close 2 Gents this weekend!  It has been so much fun!
If you are around, I hope you can catch these last performances in Davis Square!
www.actorsshakespeareproject.org

ASP Hancock Family Holiday Challenge

The Cast of Two Gentlemen of Verona 
Photo by Stratton McCrady

 

Happy Holidays!

 

So, Two Gents is up and running, I hope you can make it!

 

In the meantime, I wanted to spread the word about the very important Donation Challenge below:

every year, the Hancock Family makes this generous pledge, and it is so crucial for our company that we meet the challenge.  So please consider donating to ASP, even a little is DOUBLED, remember!

Here's all the info below:

2012 Hancock Family Holiday Challenge

Posted: Nov 30, 2012

Hancock Family Holiday Challenge has BEGUN!

That's right. The AMAZING Hancock Family has stepped up AGAIN with a fabulous holiday challenge to help ASP thrive in 2013!

Download the form to mail in HERE

Every dollar received between December 1, 2012 and January 15, 2013 will be matched, dollar for dollar, by the Hancock Family, up to $50,000! We must raise at least $50,000 to receive that match. Please help with a donation of any size today!

Thank you and Happy Holidays,

Actors' Shakespeare Project

"I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks."

- Twelfth Night, III iii